A top goal of FABB is to ensure that residents have safe, convenient bicycle access to the Silver Line stations in Tysons and Reston. Current conditions at the Tysons stations are not good. All four stations are adjacent to major arterial roads (Routes 7 & 123). Other than the bike lanes on the Gallows Road leading into Tysons, there are no dedicated bike facilities in Tysons. While some of the Phase 1 Tysons Bicycle Master Plan facilities have been built, most have not. Bike access to the Wiehle Ave station in Reston is better, but some of the more important planned improvements will not be made until 2017 or later.

From the GGW article:

On the PlanItMetro blog, system planners studied how people use each of the 35 stations where Metro operates parking lots or garages and where they come from. They found that people drive from as far as Baltimore, Annapolis and Manassas to use Metro's 9 terminal stations, which have lots of parking and are some of the system's busiest.

Meanwhile, 26 other stations serve "neighborhood parking" needs, attracting commuters who drive very short distances. Two-thirds of drivers at Forest Glen station come from within two miles, while 30% of drivers at Van Dorn Street, West Hyattsville and Fort Totten come from within one mile. These commuters could walk or bike instead, but many of these stations are located in a way that makes doing so hard, if not impossible.

As a result, people living near these stations feel like they have to drive there. This means more car traffic and more pollution, since cars produce the most emissions withinthe first few minutes of operation.

But poor pedestrian and bike access also restricts the capacity of a station to how many parking spaces it has. If those spaces are filled by the morning rush hour, that station is effectively closed to new riders until the evening. That might explain why stations like Forest Glen and West Hyattsville have some of the system's lowest ridership.